2 Catholic schools in the area will close

Wednesday

Jan 23, 2013 at 2:00 AMJan 23, 2013 at 7:23 AM

The Archdiocese of New York announced Tuesday that two Catholic schools in Ulster County — St. Joseph in Kingston and St. Mary of the Snow in Saugerties — will close at the end of the current school year.

MICHAEL RANDALL

The Archdiocese of New York announced Tuesday that two Catholic schools in Ulster County — St. Joseph in Kingston and St. Mary of the Snow in Saugerties — will close at the end of the current school year.

That would leave Kingston Catholic School as the archdiocese's only elementary school in the county.

The archdiocese said the decisions were based on the recommendations of a local ad hoc committee of clergy and laypeople, in consultation with archdiocese officials. The prime reason: unsustainable costs. The 22 schools to close across the archdiocese will affect 4,341 students, almost 9 percent of current total enrollment.

There was better news for a third local school identified two months ago as being at risk of closing.

Sacred Heart School in Newburgh learned the committee and the archdiocese had deemed its plan for long-term survival was viable and it will remain open.

St. Joseph is not accepting Tuesday's news as the final word.

A statement issued to the news media outside the school Tuesday said St. Joseph has asked for a meeting with Timothy McNiff, the archdiocese superintendent of schools, to discuss a plan to become an independent Catholic school.

John A. Coleman Catholic High School in Hurley successfully did so more than a decade ago under similar circumstances.

Parents like Jennifer Nelson, who enrolled her son in St. Joseph two years ago after his previous school, St. Augustine in Highland, was closed, were encouraged by the plan to go independent.

"I think that's the best way to go," Nelson said.

Sacred Heart Principal Mary Ann McGivney said their plan for staying open includes the addition of an early childhood center offering universal pre-kindergarten, in an empty building the parish owns across the street from the school.

"We're all very grateful to the archdiocese for allowing us to stay open," McGivney said.

Julie Recine, who's had two children graduate from Sacred Heart, two more currently attending and one more due to start in September, believes the school's status as the last archdiocesan school in the City of Newburgh — which once had four — played a role in the decision.

"I think upon further review ... they said we have to provide something in this area," Recine said.